This week, from September 17 to 20, the Festival of Ideas is taking place across several venues in Madrid, such as El Círculo de Bellas Artes or the Prado Museum. Nevertheless, its organization was at risk in the final hours, after as many as 33 artists or speakers connected to it announced their decision to suspend their participation. Among them are Rodrigo Sorogoyen, who has just released The Beloved, the writer Alana S. Portero, the singers Niño de Elche and Rodrigo Cuevas, or the humorist and host Inés Hernand.
The original text criticized Allianz’s sponsorship, which has been linked to the stage at Plaza de España. “After learning of Allianz’s participation as a sponsor of the Festival of Ideas (…) the undersigned have collectively decided to suspend our participation.”
They continued: “The German insurance giant, Allianz, is today the world’s largest purchaser of Israeli state bonds and, therefore, a fundamental financier of the ongoing genocide. Allianz cannot claim ignorance because its name appears in the 2025 report by the United Nations’ special rapporteur Francesca Albanese, ‘From the Occupation Economy to the Genocide Economy,’ precisely due to the purchase of those bonds, whose investment has tripled since then.”
Therefore, they asked the organization to “publicly commit to severing ties with Allianz and to not accept financial support, either in this edition or in future editions, from entities that collaborate with the State of Israel in the destruction of the Palestinian people.”
From the organizers, late on Tuesday they announced that Allianz was withdrawing as a sponsor of this event. “It is no longer possible to remove the name from the programs by hand, but Allianz is dissociating itself from the festival. We will bear the cost to be able to move forward with the call.”
As El País reports, Allianz has rejected the accusations: “We firmly reject the accusations leveled at our company and stand by our responsible business practices. We do not want this debate to divert attention from the Festival of Ideas, its organizers, participants, or the audience. Therefore, we have decided to withdraw from the sponsorship so that the event can take place as planned.”
